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Monday, February 27, 2012

Here is an email I received that may interest you in the legalities, or rather the illegalities of Wikileaks and their taking private and supposedly secure property and turning it into a public nightmare...

—Visit Stratfor.com/hacking-news to watch this video message from George Friedman

Transcript:

I'm George Friedman, founder and CEO of Stratfor.

As most of you know, in December thieves hacked into
Stratfor data systems and stole a large number of company emails, as
well as private information of Stratfor subscribers and friends. Today
Wikileaks is publishing the emails that were stolen in December. This is
a deplorable, unfortunate -- and illegal -- breach of privacy.

Some of the emails may be forged or altered to include
inaccuracies. Some may be authentic. We will not validate either, nor
will we explain the thinking that went into them. Having had our
property stolen, we will not be victimized twice by submitting to
questions about them.

The disclosure of these emails does not mean that there has
been another hack of Stratfor's computer and data systems. Those
systems, which we have rebuilt with enhanced security measures, remain
secure and protected.

The release of these emails is, however, a direct attack on
Stratfor. This is another attempt to silence and intimidate the company,
and one we reject. As you can see, emails sent to many people about my
resignation were clearly forged.

We do not know what else has been manufactured. Stratfor will
not be silenced, and we will continue to publish the geopolitical
analysis our friends and subscribers have come to rely on.

As we have said before, Stratfor has worked to build good
sources in many countries around the world, as any publisher of
geopolitical analysis would do.

We are proud of the relationships we have built, which help our
analysts better understand the issues in many of these countries through
the eyes of people who live there.

We have developed these relationships with individuals and
partnerships with local media in a straightforward manner, and we are
committed to meeting the highest standards of professional and ethical
conduct.

Stratfor is not a government organization, not is it
affiliated with any government. The emails are private property. Like
all private emails, they were written casually, with no expectation that
anyone other than the sender and recipient would ever see them. And
clearly, as with my supposed resignation letter, some of the emails may
be fabricated or altered.

Stratfor understands that this hack and the fallout from it
have created serious difficulties for our subscribers, friends and
employees. We again apologize for this incident, and we deeply
appreciate the loyalty that has been shown to Stratfor since last year's
hack.

We want to assure everyone that Stratfor is recovering from
the hack. We will continue to do what we do best: produce and publish
independent analysis of international affairs. And we will be back in
full operation in the coming weeks. We look forward to continuing to
serve you.